We have been discussing certain postcards dating from somewhere between 1939 and 1955, which took on the aesthetic of the grade school Valentine: clear, firm illustrations, generally positive attitude, and really, really obvious puns. Someday, after the Lottery win comes through, I will mount an exhibition just of postcards and little Valentines based on “Cannot BEAR to be separated from you.”
But there are a few that extend to greater effort in presenting puns. The photographer’s dog at the top of this column is not the first joke about dogs we might think of. And I believe I have mentioned my admiration of the second card, which is also a joke you might need to look at for a while. (If you are of one of the later generations, belonging to an era when cameras do not snap and people do not pet, you might not get the joke at all.)
And one can only stand back in awe of a card which finds four separate meanings for But/Butt and gets them all in one use. Now, THAT is Art with a capital A (or B, but that makes it Bart.)
Then there are others, which simply go for friendly animals and avoid puns entirely. I’m not perfectly happy with this joke, if that’s what it is. DO giraffes stretch? I mean, aside from the rubber ones you toss into the baby’s crib for Ladislaus to teethe on.
This image is also perfectly acceptable as a good-natured greeting, but there is no joke in he words, just the humor of a large woman on a small horse. (Unless you feel they were making a joke about the horse having a sense of WOE. I think that’s reaching to give the artist credit.)
This one, too, just gives us a humorous crisis, which the victim is not taking seriously. But I would give the artist credit for having her chased by a bull, so this card could go out without any lines about “And That’s No Bull.” (We’ve discussed that before; it’s a nother caption that might fill a exhibition gallery with its many variations. Hey, I could do the two as one exhibition, and have a Bearish gallery and a Bullish gallery. What, you think I should leave these jokes to the experts? You just wait ‘til I have that Lottery cash; I’ll pay someone to follow you through the exhibition and tickle you so you HAVE to laugh.)
No laugh in this postcard, either. Just a happy puppy and an invitation. Well, they can’t all be diamonds.
SOME postcards of this era, though, pass by plain pleasantness and go for something more surreal. This was a very popular postcard, to judge by the number for sale online. What’s it all about, anyway? We have a typical urban backyard pig outside and a massive hog who…lives in a house? I realize the early days of suburban communities could get a little freeform, but what’s…..
This card should have been featured in my column on the lorgnette. Why is the cat reading the letter with a lorgnette? Why is this cat reading the letter at all? That must mean the cat is not the sender of the invitation, since it just came out of the mailbox (where it turned up without an envelope.) I understand the purpose of the postcard was simply to serve as an invitation, and not be submitted to literary analysis, but I can’t really perceive the narrative.
Maybe I should use a lorgnette.
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